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POPULUS 
ROCESTRIENSIS 

An Introduction to the 
Demography of Rochester, N. Y. 



WSS^UXKOW YOUR CITY 




What has been the comparative growth of our City? 
Where are the densest sections of Rochester? 
Ought we to restrict our immigration ? 
How does foreign illiteracy compare with ours ? 
How does foreign crime compare with American ? 
How many of our homes are rented and mortgaged? 
What is the voting character of our population ? 
Under what flag were most of our children born ? 
Why were 20,000 Italians not counted in the census? 
What is the comparative desirability of foreigners? 
In what part of the U. S. were our natives born ? 
In what part of the world were our immigrants born? 




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POPULUS ROCESTRIENSIS 

An Introduction to the Demography of Rochester, N. Y. 

by 
Edwin A. Rumball 

Author of "The Fourth Ward Survey," "The Working Girls and Women of Rochester," Etc. 

It has been said by one student of the general subject that 
"population concerns everything : morals and politics, domestic and 
national economy." To study the population of the City of Roch- 
ester necessarily gives us the boundary of a community, but we 
must define this boundary more closely and limit our study to the 
numerical and racial development of our population, contenting 
ourselves with an application of our facts to but one social prob- 
lem, namely, that of density. 

In a democracy such as we are trying to build in this country, 
it is absolutely essential that we have a social science that will accu- 
rately acquaint us with the influences which are moulding us, just 
what racial factors are unconsciously shaping our civic and national 
destiny. A large proportion of the present population of our cities 
must be viewed from the standpoint which comprehends the sig- 
nificance of its origin, not in New England, but across the sea, in 
northern, southern and eastern Europe. 

So little are we prepared for this point of view that many of 
us constantly admit opinions full of fallacy. For example, we con- 
tinually view their numbers from the wrong angle. A news item 
telling of so many hundred thousand immigrants landing in New 
York in one year obsesses us with fear, and we argue for greater 
restriction. But Robert Watchorn, the former Commissioner of 
Immigration at the Port of New York, states in a letter to the 
writer, that there were more foreigners in the United States, when 
Lincoln called out the troops, in proportion to the rest of the popu- 
lation, than there are today. This is an interesting fact which we 
have verified by a comparison of Census reports. At the beginning 
of the twentieth century a little less than sixty-five per cent of the 
people who came in during the previous decade remained. We may 
all quiet our fears concerning the numerical strength of these new- 
comers by the fact that at this time only about thirteen per cent 
of the population of this country is foreign born. This is a figure 
which each decade reduces. Perhaps if we were citizens of some 
other state than New York, we should be less impressed with this 



fear. But great as is the amount of immigration to this state, 
nearly seventy per cent of the people are natives. 

Another instance illustrating our carelessness in entertaining 
wrong impressions of our immigrants can be cited from the figures 
regarding illiteracy. The "ignorant" foreigner must not be spoken 
of as if he were the only inhabitant of this land that was illiterate. 
The illiteracy of the children of white native born parents in the 
United States is 5.7%, while the illiteracy of the children of the 
immigrants of the first generation is only 1.6%. It is true that 
forty-five per cent of our native illiterates are negroes, but what 
shall we say to the fact that twenty-eight per cent of our illiterates 
are native born whites, and not all southern whites at that? What 
shall we say to the forty thousand native born whites in Illinois, 
the forty-seven thousand in Ohio, the nearly sixty thousand in Penn- 
sylvania and the thirty-six thousand in our own state? The over 
four hundred thousand illiterates of all kinds in this state are di- 
vided as follows: 13.7% among foreign born whites, 5% among 
negroes and 0.8% among native whites. In our own county 4.5% 
of our male voting population is illiterate, or in other figures 224 
are native whites and 3,824 are foreign born whites. The compla- 
cency of our references to the illiteracy of the new comers ought 
always to be shaken by the wonderful intellectual energy which 
they show as soon as the opportunity is offered to get an education. 

In general, our estimate of the physical and moral character 
of the immigrant of recent years should be just and kindly. We 
find that the native population still furnishes the larger propor- 
tion of the prisoners in our cells, and in spite of wide impressions 
to the contrary, the immigration from southern and eastern Europe 
makes a better showing in regard to alcoholism, insanity and hos- 
pital costs than did the men and women who came a quarter of a 
century ago. This is, of course, partly due to the higher physical 
standard which they must now match at the port of entry. The 
southern Italians show a slightly higher rate of crime, when taken 
by themselves than do the native born Americans, but it is so slight 
that we have nothing to boast of in being only the second most 
criminal class in the country. If what follows in this study can in 
any degree correct false impressions or bring about a more sym- 
pathetic as well as fair and just understanding of our new citi- 
zens, this introduction to the study of the wealth of life and char- 
acter which they bring us will fulfil its purpose. 

"The suddeness of its rise, the energy of its population, the 
excellence of its institutions and the character of its prosperity, 
render Rochester prominent among the cities that have recently 
sprung into existence throughout the land, notable for extraordi- 
nary intellectual and physical development." So, O'Reilly wrote in 
the first history of our City in the year 1838. It can be said with 
equal truth of Rochester today. 

Important and fascinating as the subject may be for the his- 
torian, the student of population can have no practical interest in 
the first inhabitants of this region. Except for some two dozen 
men who have come to work in our midst with stranger tools than 
bows and arrows, the roving bands of Senecas and Hurons who 
wandered into this country from the Niagara Frontier, add little 

4 



significance to our modern population. Rochester, like so many of 
the middle west cities had its roots in New England. For the first 
twenty years of its history it was a Massachusetts and a Vermont 
colony. And proud as we may one day become of the many Euro- 
pean bloods running in our veins, Rochester will never rue the day, 
that gave it the fibre of the Puritan and made the soul of an ancient 
past the essence of its noblest future. 

The records of Rochesterville begin about the year 1815; at 
that time there could be counted here, 331 men, women and chil- 
dren. At the first, the population did not grow very fast, ham- 
pered somewhat by the war with Great Britain. But the complaint 
could not have lasted long, for between 1820 and 1830 the rate of 
increase was as high as 517^ . In 1817 the ville was dropped from 
the name of the town and three years later the count was 1,502. 
The census returns and rates of increase for the last ninety years 
can be best shown by table and graph. 



225,000 



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517% 






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TABLE' 1. 

Year Population Rate of Increase 

1820 1,502 

1830 9,269 517 % 

1840 20,191 117.8% 

1850 36,403 80.2% 

1860 48.204 32.4%- 

1870 62,386 29.4%> 

1880 89,363 43.2% 

1890 133,896 49.8% 

1900 162,608 21.4% 

1910 218,149 34.1% 

1920 will probably show an increase to about 310,000. 

The significance of these figures will be best seen when we 
compare them with other rates of increase : 

TABLE 2. 

Year New York Buffalo Syracuse Rochester X. Y. State 

1820 28.4% 43.1 S 

1830 63.8%- 313 % 517 % 39.8%. 

1840 54.4% 110' 117.895 26.6% 

1850 64.9% 132 % 80.2', 27.5% 

1860 57.8% 92 % 26.3% 32.4%- 25.3%. 

1870 15.8% 45.1% 53.1% 29.4%- 12 % 

1880 28 % 31.8% 20.3', 43.2% 16 % 

1890 25.6% (4.S',' 70.2', 49.89? 18 % 

1900 126.8% 37.*', 23 % 21.4'; 21 % 

1910 38.7' i 20.2' { 26.67* 34.1' , 25.4% 

The only cities which surpassed Rochester in population in 
1830 were New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Wash- 
ington, Providence, Richmond, Portland, Louisville, Hartford, 
Philadelphia, Boston, Charlestown, Albany, Newark, Pittsburg, 
Salem, Newhaven, Norfolk and Troy. In other words, it ranked 
twenty-first in population, whereas today it holds the twenty-fifth 
place. 

Rochester has grown more rapidly than the United States as 
a whole, except for a short period at the time of the war. It has 
had a higher rate than New York state at all times since 1830. The 
rate of the state is below that of the country between the years 
1830 and 1900, but evidently because of the phenomenal increase 
in New York city during the last twenty years, the relative posi- 
tions are reversed. The depression of the decade ending 1870 is 
seen in most cities, but not in Syracuse, which presents an interest- 
ing maximum. — Could the discovery of the salt have anything to 
do with this? — Good times are apparent again in the decade end- 
ing 1890 when a number of maximums are seen. The 517% increase 
must have caused quite a little comment at the time, yet it was a 
common thing in cities just beginning. We find O'Reilly saying 
in 1838, when the population was about 20,000 that, "probably not 
ten persons of manly age" were born within the city limits. 

According to the last United States census — 1910, — Rochester 
had a population of 218,149 ; many of the western cities which have 
arisen since Rochester was born have surpassed it in population, 
but when we consider the rate of increase in our own city and com- 
pare it with that of cities of similar size, we have a creditable show- 
ing. Between 1900 and 1910, the rate of increase was 32.4%, which 
is 13% greater than the increase of the previous decade. Only 



thirteen other cities of the fifty having more than one hundred 
thousand population could show a better increase. When in addi- 
tion to this we look for the ability of the city to increase its per- 
centage of gain, it stands in the twentieth rank instead of in the 
forty-first where it ranked in 1900. If we compare the growth of 
Rochester with the seven cities which approximate it in size we 
have a result somewhat as follows: 

TABLE 3. 
City and Population 1910 Increase 1900 Comparison 

Rochester, 218,149 34.2% A 13% Gain 

Kansas City, 248,381 51.7% A 28% Gain 

Seattle, 237,194 194 ' , A 106% Gain 

St. Paul, 214,744 31.7' - A 9% Gain 

Denver, 213,381 59.4% A 34% Gain 

Indianapolis, 233,650 38.19? A 22% Loss 

Providence, 224,326 27.8% A 5% Loss 

I a misville. 223,928 9.4% An 18 r /o Loss 

By this table we see that only five cities approximating the size 
of Rochester, show a greater percentage of increase, and only three 
show a better result when compared with the previous ten years. 
In comparing the cities of over 100,000 in the state, we find that 
outside of New York city, Rochester stands first for percentage of 
increase, and that including New York it has the best showing for 
any of the cities of this size in the state in its comparison with the 
previous census. Our neighbor city of Buffalo gained only at the 
rate of 20.2 ',', , which is a loss of rate of about 17% when compared 
with 1900. 

Another numerical aspect of the development of our popula- 
tion is open to us in the study of densities. The total area of Roch- 
ester is about 13,350 acres, though recent additions near some of 
the city lines must make this a clear under-estimate. Excluding 
all park, water and other uninhabitable areas, we have left about 
17 square miles. To place our population on this area means 12,480 
to the square mile or about 19 to the acre. Some idea of the posi- 
tion of Rochester compared with other cities of different sizes may 
be seen from the following table: 

TABLE 4. 
City Population to the Acre 

Syracuse 13 

The Bronx 16 

Buffalo 17 

Rochester 19* 

Greater New York 22 

Manhattan 161 

*As we have hinted in the paragraph preceding this table, the recent acquisi- 
tion of new territory in the city would probably reduce this figure to something like 
that of Buffalo, which city includes a great deal of outlying territory in its limits. 

Buffalo and Rochester make two very good cities to compare 
but the city unit is very inadequate for comparison; only from 
wards and enumeration districts can we obtain fair density data. 
The most congested ward in Buffalo is the seventh which has a 
population of 65 to the acre. Probably its most dense section is 
that which is bounded by Broadway, Back, Stanislaus and Sweet 
avenues, where can be found as many as 132 to the acre. The 
densest ward in Rochester is also the seventh, which has 55 to the 



acre, and our most congested section is that which is bounded by 
Vose, Edward, Gilmore, Hudson, Rhine, Hanover and Thomas 
streets, where our people live at the rate of 77 to the acre. The 
most congested ward in Syracuse has only 43 to the acre. The 
most congested sections of Rochester, except for a small part of 
the 4th ward, are all on the north side of the city. The district 
bounded by the New York Central Railroad, Scio, Woodward and 
North streets, has a population of 2,537, or as many as 74 to the 
acre. The district bounded by Court, Chestnut, George, William, 
Monroe and Clinton Avenue South has in it over 700 persons at 
the rate of 63 to the acre. The congestion in this down-town sec- 
tion is mostly due to the rise of apartment houses which do not 
call for the same criticism which we should give to the other dis- 
tricts. The above are the only large sections of Rochester that have 
a density above the ward averages. It is held by sociologists that 
25 to the acre is the maximum density that a community should 
permit. The following table will partly indicate which are the least 
congested wards that we have: 

TABLE 5. 

Ward Population Inhabitable area Density 

1 2,760 80 acres 34 per acre 

2 4,583 116 " 39 " " 

3 7,626 202 " 37 " " 

4 5,821 129 " 45 " " 

5 10,188 264 " *38 " " 

6 8.300 429 " 19 " " 

7 8,240 149 " 55 " " 

8 15,291 297 " ■ 51 " " 

9 7,261 217 " 33 " " 

10 12,064 1,191 " 10 " " 

11 12,346 275 " 44 " " 

12 15,566 803 " 19 " " 

13 5,516 175 " 31 " " 

14 14,444 1,000 " 14 " " 

15 8,339 351 " 23 " " 

16 10,691 222 " 48 " " 

17 15,701 1,712 " *9 " " 

18 17,781 1,117 " 15 " " 

19 17,546 1,174 " 15 " " 

20 10.319 503 " 20 " " 

21 1.582 720 " 2 " " 

22 6,184 *.... " *.. " " 

*Because of recent changes in ward limits, it was impossible to make each of 

these estimates accurate. The asterisks denote those wards where such inaccuracy 
can be found. 

It will be noticed that half of the wards are above the normal 
healthy condition of density, that the only wards having less than 
25 to the acre are the 6th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th 
and the country ward, the 21st. The four most congested wards 
in the city are the 4th, 7th, 8th and 16th; the 11th ward follows 
very closely on the 4th. 

It is part of the question of density to determine the amount 
of crowding which exists in the houses of the people. In 1910 we 
had 46,787 families in the city dwelling in 38,860 dwellings, which 
is 1.2% to a dwelling. This is an increase of a point on the pre- 
vious ten years. Buffalo shows a similar increase for the same 
period, from 1.4% to 1.5%. The wards which show the greatest 



inadequacy for the housing of the families which report as living 
there are as follows : 

TABLE 6. 

Ward No. Dwellings No. Families 

2 509 904 

3 . 1,286 1,753 

4 904 1,269 

6 " 1,513 1,926 

7 1,100 1,630 

5 2,374 3,010 

9 1,167 1,468 

11 2,200 2,724 

12 3,027 3,620 

16 1,525 2,318 

18 ['..[ 3,443 3,981 

We have been unable to obtain recent figures for the number 
of families in dwellings, but at the beginning of the century 88.6% 
were in one-family houses; 9.1% were in two-family houses. The 
number of families living in houses containing two, three, four and 
more families was at that time on the increase, and we suspect that 
recent figures would not show any great difference to these per- 
centages on the good side. 

The ownership of these homes can be best stated in another 
table : 

TABLE 7. 

Owned 

Ward Free Encumbered Unknown Rented Unknown 

1 10 18 1 392 38 

2 42 61 3 766 32 

3 ' 223 176 33 1,223 98 

4 99 111 4 1,004 51 

5 430 355 3 1,247 41 

6 377 249 3 1,209 88 

7 141 243 .. 1,189 57 

8 567 678 4 1,707 54 

9 '" 210 259 .. 985 14 

10 465 860 24 1,360 32 

11 481 442 3 1,771 27 

p 752 879 7 1,878 104 

13 215 197 1 922 34 

14 486 858 8 1,380 24 

15 341 497 1 952 13 

16 '" 341 423 2 1,511 41 

17 " 669 1,086 2 1,364 31 

18 558 1,395 3 1,973 52 

19 674 1,342 3 1,984 62 

20 548 573 1 1.048 35 

?1 83 95 1 180 4 

22 .'.'.'.".'.'.".'.'.'.'.'... 164 509 32 480 9 

Of course, a mortgaged home does not necessarily mean bad 
times or conditions, it frequently stands for enterprize and suc- 
cess, this is especially true where the owners are young. At the 
beginning of this century, a survey taken of the ages of our house- 
holders showed the following results, which will suggest conditions 
of today with some approximation: 



TABLE 8. 
Age of Householder Owned Free Mortgaged Rented 

Under 25 years 19 90 736 

Between 25 and 34 394 816 6,118 

I let ween 35 and 44 1,285 2,126 ■ 6-260 

Between 45 and 54 1,553 1.775 3,939 

Between 55 and 64 1,365 990 2,168 

Above 65 years 1,369 599 1,217 

In round figures, at that time, out of 33,964 homes in this city 
only 6,001 were owned free of mortgage, while 20,481 were rented. 
When we look to other cities for comparison, we find that Roch- 
ester holds a good position, though nothing to be proud of in the 
absolute sense. In the Borough of Manhattan, only 6% of the 
houses are owned by the people who live in them. In Philadelphia, 
which has many very small homes, 22% are free owners. The fig- 
ures for Syracuse and Buffalo are much the same as ours. When we 
consider the social importance of one-family houses owned by those 
who live in them, it is an evil tendency which we have begun, 
fraught with great harm to the moral and economic ideals of the 
community, that fewer and fewer of the population manage to pos- 
sess them. 

Before leaving this part of our study we may include tables 
of the age and sex characters of the population of the city, which 
for some will prove useful social science data. 

TABLE 9. 

Males, 15 Years of Age and Over. 

Single Married 

Total No. ' - No. % Widowed Divorced 

Total 81,719 33,314 40.8 44,537 54.5 3,466 247 

15 to 24 years 21,934 19-677 89.7 2.170 9.9 13 3 

25 to 44 years 38,049 11,557 304 25.620 67,3 685 142 

45 years and over.. 21,668 2,050 9.5 16,730 77.2 2,765 102 

Age unknown 68 30 .... 17 .... 3 

Native white — 

Native parentage .. 25,079 11,259 44.9 12,709 50.7 948 98 

Native white — 

For. or mixed par. 26,876 12,948 48.2 12,984 48.3 797 92 

Foreign-born white. 29,375 8,943 30.4 18,641 63.5 1,701 55 

Negro 346 138 39.9 187 54.0 19 2 

Females, 15 Years of Age and Over. 

Single Married 

Total No. ', No. % Widows Divorced 

Total 83.461 30,252 36.2 43,427 52.0 9,332 320 

15 to 24 vears 22,025 17,177 78.0 4,699 21.3 65 22 

25 to 44 years 36,868 9,866 26.8 25.243 68.5 1.520 194 

45 and over 24,500 3,182 13.0 13.467 55.0 7,727 104 

Age unknown 68 27 .... 18 .... 20 

Native white — 

Native parentage .. 26.308 10,754 40.9 12,634 48.0 2,720 164 

Native white — 

For. or native par.. 30,887 13,774 44.6 14,534 47.1 2,428 89 

Foreign-born white. 25,880 5,591 21.6 16,054 62.0 4,140 65 

Negro 366 124 33.9 198 54.1 40 2 

We must now definitely turn to the racial character of our 
city. Our fellow citizens have come from the ends of the earth 
and for many the most interesting and romantic part of this intro- 
duction to the population of our city will begin at this point. Table 
10 will set forth for us where our foreign white stock comes from : 



10 



TABLE 10. 

White population of Foreign Birth or Foreign Parentage: 1910 Foreign- 
Foreign Country in which Total Foreign birth Native white 
born, or, if native, in which p Both par- One par- nODllla . 
parents were born Number J^ Number ™: ents for- ent for- tion: 

eign born eign born 1900 

All countries 142,680 100.0 58,993 100.0 56,732 26,955 40,718 

Austria 2,328 1.6 1,688 2.9 549 91 218 

Canada— French 1,493 1.0 569 1.0 380 544 552 

Canada— Other 16,280 11.4 9,112 15.4 1,948 5,220 7,733 

Denmark 266 0.2 135 0.2 56 75 51 

England 11,214 7.9 4,939 8.4 2,711 3,564 3,909 

France 1,011 0.7 326 0.6 315 370 307 

Germanv 49,573 34.7 14.624 24.8 24,851 10,098 16,261 

Greece 191 0.1 176 0.3 12 3 18 

Holland 3,094 2.2 1,220 2.1 1,191 683 927 

Hungary 556 0.4 415 0.7 114 27 32 

Ireland 19,026 13.3 5,230 8.9 9,353 4,443 5,599 

Italy 14,816 10.4 10,638 18.0 3,936 242 1,278 

Norway 131 0.1 88 0.1 25 18 32 

Roumania 121 0.1 90 0.2 27 4 2 

Russia 11,595 8.1 7,148 12.1 4,151 296 2,221 

Scotland 2,140 1.5 949 1.6 493 698 663 

Sweden 615 0.4 384 0.7 170 61 109 

Switzerland 1,083 0.8 498 0.8 322 263 478 

Turkey in Asia 142 0.1 118 0.2 IS 6 4 

Turkey in Europe .... 169 0.1 155 0.3 13 1 4 

Wales 264 0.2 89 0.2 68 107 59 

All other 6,572 4.6 402 0.7 6,029 141 265 

The above table describes our 142,680 citizens who come 
directly within foreign influences. Most of our native citizens had 
their origin in New York state. Pennsylvania has sent us about 
two thousand, Ohio about a thousand and the same number have 
come from Michigan and Massachusetts. 

If we list our citizens in the terms of politics we have about 
seventy thousand males of voting age. White native parentage 
gives us 20,467 or 29.4% ; Foreign or mixed parentage, 21,683 or 
31.2% ; and foreign- born whites of voting age can be numbered at 
27,067 or 38,9%. This last figure should be divided as follows: 
Naturalized citizens: 13,003 ; number who have taken out their first 
papers: 2,947; Aliens: 8,361 and 2,756 unknown. 

If we classify our population by age as well as race we have 
a summary like the following: 

TABLE 11. 

Total Natiye White Foreign White Negro 

Fe- 

Male Female Male Female Male Female Male male 

Total 108,352 109,797 76.643 81,569 31.241 27,752 424 455 

Under 5 years.. 9.552 9,514 9,266 9,166 262 314 24 34 

Under 1 year... 2,058 1,974 2,039 1,953 12 17 7 4 

5 to 9 years.... 8.485 8,318 7,682 7,525 774 770 29 23 

10 to 14" years... 8,596 8,504 7,740 7,683 830 788 25 32 

15 to 19 years... 9,973 10,149 8,247 8,619 1,692 1.498 34 26 

20 to 24 "years .. . 11.961 11,876 8,206 8,882 3,702 2,921 49 70 

25 to 34 years... 21,827 20,849 13,762 14,717 7,931 6,004 114 125 

35 to 44 years... 16,222 16,019 10.010 10,724 6,133 5,227 68 63 

45 to 64 "years... 17,631 19,074 9,999 11,717 7,547 7,283 78 73 

65 years and oyer 4.037 5,426 1,690 2,495 2,343 2,920 3 9 

Age unknown .. 68 68 41 41 27 27 

Most of the foreigners of our city are in the 5th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 
14th, 17th, 18th and 19th wards. Most of the negroes are in the 



11 



3rd ward. It is a decided gain to our community that most of these 
newcomers from over the sea, come to us in their youth. Most of 
their children are born under the American flag and to more or 
less extent under American ideals, which makes the process of 
assimilation very much easier. It is significant in this respect that 
while about one-fifth of our population is foreign born, nearly 
ninety-two per cent of the children in our schools, both public and 
parochial, are American born. 

The relative desirability of the foreign speaking men and 
women who come to us, can be partly gauged from the percentage 
of those who in a given year are returned by the government. The 
amount of cash that they bring into the country on the average may 
also guide us. Table 12 can summarize this for us: 

TABLE" 12. 

Percentage Refused Average Amt. of 
Country Admission Cash per Head 

Scandinavia 187o $17.00 

Ireland 39% 15.00 

Portugal 46% 11.00 

North Italy 59% 23.00 

Germany ." 63% 30.00 

Hebrew 84% 9.00 

South Italy 1,34% 9.00 

To the consciousness of most Rochesterians, the Italian is our 
chief immigrant, and his significance in our midst might well 
occupy our thought first. The first member of this race to come 
to our city came as much as fifty years ago. He was a laborer and 
stayed here about three years before moving to Chicago. He 
returned in 1864 and discovered that in his absence, two other Ital- 
ian families had settled here, whose business was the making of 
plaster images. According to the last United States Census, taken 
in 1910, we had only 10,638 Italians in Rochester. This will sur- 
prize many who believe themselves acquainted with the Italian sec- 
tions of the city, for it is a very general impression, and we believe 
a fairly correct one, that we have a very much larger number with 
us. Leading Italians unhesitatingly say that we have at least 
20,000 ; the Consul placed the number as high as 30,000, some state 
it even higher. We feel that we are conservative in stating that 
it is our belief that Rochester has 25,000 Italians. Just why the 
Census should so under-estimate the number is not easy to explain, 
but it is not without precedent. The same situation was found in 
Boston which was there explained as due to the large number of 
resident Italians who were absent from the city working on the 
state roads and railroads when the Census was taken. This may 
help explain our problem. The Italian Consul also suggested that 
it was always impossible to make an accurate estimate of the immi- 
grants in a city unless the investigator went at night. The women 
found at home during the day are frequently afraid to state how 
many boarders they have, for fear that the law will find some fault. 
Further than this, there seems to be an ingrained suspicion of all 
such enquirers, based on the feeling that all such information will 
be made the basis of taxation or some other interference with their 
far sought freedom. 

12 



Perhaps we should try to understand the Italian far more than 
we have previously understood any other immigrant. It is impor- 
tant to keep clear in our minds that Italian geography seems to 
make some difference to the character of the race. We cannot class 
as a unit the northern and southern Italians. In Italy the distinc- 
tion is a real one. For example, the economic conditions of the two 
sections are very different. There is only about half as much pri- 
vate property in the south as in the north. While in the north about 
17' ; of the land is reported as unfertile, in the south this is figured 
at 21% and in Sicily it is 27 r /< . Another index of the distinction 
is said to be discoverable in the amount of meat which the two sec- 
tions eat. In the north there is 17.9 kilograms consumed per per- 
son, while in the south there is only seven. Illiteracy is found in 
the south eight times more than in the north, but expenditure for 
education in the north is three times as large as that spent on the 
south. All these necessarily bring about a different standard of 
living and consequently different characteristics. Three-fourths of 
our Italian immigrants come from the south and if Italy is to leave 
its mark deep upon America it will be left more by the children of 
the provinces of the Abruzzi, Campania, Bascilicati, Calabra and 
Sicily than by the children of the north. The north may excell them 
in some external features but it is our experience that the southern 
Italians have warm and kindly hearts, full of desire for every true 
improvement and excelling when the chance comes in many things 
which will add glory to the spirit of America. 

In Rochester they are found in the 2nd, 9th and 16th wards. 
Most of the down-town wards have a sprinkling of them. In our 
minds we mostly associate the following streets with them : Hart- 
ford, Lewis, Ontario, Davis, Central Park, Philander, Hebard, Ritz, 
Massena, State and West avenue. A small colony off Monroe ave- 
nue can claim to live in the twelfth or best residential ward of the 
city. These are mostly Sicilian. Many of our Italian citizens are 
illiterate, easy to slip into a place where the language of the hand 
is all that is required. A very large number of them look to Italy 
as a home-country, a place to return to, one of these days. The fact 
that the Italian has a little property is no absolute guarantee that 
he is rooted to our soil. He may also have a little property in Italy, 
bought with his American dollars, and it may be his fairest dream 
to end his days upon it. The annual emigration from this country 
to Italy is very large, and the population of Rochester so far as 
this race is concerned is changing all the time. Less than half of 
our Rochester Italians have their families with them. About fifty 
per cent of these will earn enough money to go home to their fam- 
ilies and probably remain there, except for occasional later trips, 
and the remainder will bring their families out to them. The chief 
reason for this feature of Italian immigration is that it is not 
wholly a natural exodus. The Italian does not leave his country 
for any extraordinary love for American freedom or dislike of Ital- 
ian conditions. His journey is simply a good business trip. We 
have to thank the agents of the steamship companies and the glor- 
ified reports of the first comers, that so large a number have come 
to us in the last few years. As early as 1891 Commissioner Schul- 
ters found a system in operation there, which included nearly four 
thousand immigration agents and sub-agents, in 1900 this number 

13 



had increased to over seven thousand. Because the wages here are 
larger than in the home country, about three-fourths of the passage 
money is sent from friends on this side. Most of them are single 
men who find it possible to crowd into small rooms and maintain a 
standard of life which permits of considerable saving. The Italians 
of New York city are said to have about sixty millions of property 
with about fifteen millions of this in the saving banks. The same 
report can be made with even larger savings for the Italians of St. 
Louis, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. It cannot be denied that 
this saving is made at considerable sacrifice, both personally and 
socially. Health and comfort and a low standard of living is far 
too great a price to pay for such savings. Thrift is good so long 
as the community does not have to suffer for it. On the other hand 
much of the poverty and misery of their manner of living is not 
forced upon them by thrift, as every social worker well knows. Low 
wages and evil housing conditions and the anti-social attitude of 
some who think that anything will do for Italians, all combine to 
degrade their life with us. 

Another class of Italians in our city, — a class also to be found 
among our Russians and Poles, — is a shifting throng of rather edu- 
cated young men and women, who are unable to get the employ- 
ment for which their education has fitted them, because of their 
ignorance of the language and the prejudice which the average 
American feels for the average foreigner. They are ready to do 
anything. Lonely, intellectually starved, disillusioned concerning 
the wonderful country to which their dreams had brought them, 
they constitute, as one Italian of this group said, a more dangerous 
social element in their hopelessness than the most illiterate. A 
small percentage of them after they have learned the language be- 
come professional men among their own people and many of the 
others add their lives to the tragedy of the ideal and pass into a 
state of "homesickness for the land which they have never seen;" 
others again with the spirit of an Arturo Giovanetti fling out their 
arrows into the gale to be driven by wild winds to their destination. 

So much prejudice is shown to our local Italians by persons 
who do not know them, that we are strongly tempted to lengthen 
our description of their character. If we are human ourselves we 
ought to remember their humanity. Hath not an Italian hands, 
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same 
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, 
healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer 
and winter as ourselves? If you pinch them, do they not cry? If 
you tickle them, do they not laugh? If you poison them, do they 
not die? If you wrong them, shall they not revenge? It will prob- 
ably be sufficient to recall the fact that all who have learned to 
know them, love them. More and more acquaintance will place them 
in the estimation of all on perfect equality with every one, as it 
has done the immigrants who came before them. We believe that 
Rochester at the end of the twentieth century, if not many years 
before, will be proud of the fact that in these years so many of the 
sunny children of Italy came to live by the Genesee. We who are 
the first hosts of these people have committed some terrible mis- 
takes in our ignorance and prejudice. Not long ago an Italian who 
has since become an Italian sculptor of much promise was seen 

14 



working in a street gang. He had come to our land unfriended, 
and finding no opening to work at his art, he fell back on common 
unskilled labor. This is social waste. Some day we shall awaken 
to the knowledge that we are drafting for common labor, people 
from some of the most variously gifted races of Europe. Dvorak 
was a butcher's son, and in this land he might have spent his life 
in the Chicago stock-yards, and he is typical of many a genius of 
the older lands. The new world has much to offer the immigrant, 
but it has yet to give him a full opportunity for his soul. Men do 
not live by dollars alone, and from the compatriots of Chopin, 
Dante, Socrates and the Christ, it would be strange if here and there 
the old spirit did not re-appear again and again. 

A detailed account of the German population of Rochester 
would almost be an account of the city itself. Their history with 
the city goes back to the earliest days, and all along the years their 
presence with us has been one of Rochester's most constant assets. 
Although as early as 1792, the Germans first came into the Genesee 
country, it was not until 1814 that the first of their people settled 
in Rochesterville. The first family was John Hau's, and he had a 
bakery; then came the Klem's. A Klem tradition tells of one of 
their early mothers walking to New York that the priest might bap- 
tize her baby. By the year 1830 there were six German families 
here and ten years later they had increased to six hundred. 

The story of the Germans of Rochester has been well written 
by one of our most honorable German citizens, Dr. Pfaefflin, that 
we have depended considerably upon his words for much that we 
have to tell of the years previous to the last decade. The earliest 
German immigrants came to this country to better their condition 
and were mostly laborers. Like the Italians of today, they had 
great difficulties in overcoming the language. The real inrush of 
German life into Rochester, as into all America, was in the forties. 
This came through the failure of the revolution and the failure of 
the crops. Another factor doubtless being the greater comfort of 
marine transportation which began about this time. The chief 
contingents to this city from Germany came from Alsase, Baden, 
Bavaria and the Palatinate. They did not colonize like the Italians 
upon their arrival, but definite sections of the city soon came to 
be dominated by them. At the intersection of Jay and Child streets, 
there was a large settlement of Alsatians, and the place was often 
called in those days, "the Strassburg four-corners." The section 
near South Clinton avenue and Gregory street was settled largely 
by Hessians. The great German wards of the city were and to a 
smaller extent still are the 5th, 7th, 14th and 16th. As early as 
1832 they had formed a militia and when the war came thirty years 
later, they did their full share. The old 13th regiment which left 
in May, 1861, had in it about two hundred Germans, large repre- 
sentations also going with the 108th, 140th, 151st, the batteries of 
Bricknell and Mack and the 8th and 22nd cavalry. 

But the city has received a greater contribution from the Ger- 
mans than the courage which they displayed in the Civil War. Our 
largest and most prosperous industries owe a great debt to their 
industry and skill. The nursery which Dean Bailley called "the 
most famous in the country" was founded in this city by George 
Elwanger, a native of Wurtemburg. He also introduced dwarf 

15 



apple and pear trees, revolutionized the methods of pruning and 
gave to the world the "Northern Spy." He was one of the earliest 
financial backers of the Kodak, but ploughed his name most of all 
into the hearts of the people by his gift of beautiful Highland Park 
to the city. We cannot take up space to tell of all the leading Ger- 
mans of the city, from Bausch and Lomb in the world of industry 
to Rauschenbusch in the world of religion, the German contribu- 
tion can never be forgotten. To begin to tell what America owes 
to the Germans is to tell of nearly all the joys and toils which have 
made America what it is. Think of what the common folk have 
given ! If we only think of the husking frolics, the quilting bees, 
apple-butter cookings, fruit preserving parties, turner-fests and 
sanger-fests, it is a joyful social center which they have made of 
all their neighborhoods. Christmas which the Puritans nearly 
abolished from America, was restored to us by the Germans. They 
have given us the children's toys and Santa Claus, to them we owe 
the Christmas cards and the Picture Post cards and even the Teddy 
Bear is a German immigrant. Away back in 1831, Mrs. Trollope 
wrote in her "Domestic Manners of America," — "I have never seen 
a people so totally divested of gaiety ; there is no trace of it from 
one end of the union to the other. They have no fetes, no fairs, 
no merry-makings, no music in the street, no Punch and Judy, no 
puppet shows, and a distinguished publisher in Philadelphia assured 
me that no comic publication had ever been known to succeed in 
America." It this were only half true of Rochester, we have to 
thank the Germans that times have greatly changed. Dr. Faust, 
the able German-American historian well says that "German cul- 
ture has shaken the young American giant out of his stupor of 
self -absorption, and has awakened in him a soul capable of think- 
ing the thoughts and thrilling to the emotions of all humanity." 

The flood of German immigration to this city began to cease 
about 1875. Today we have only a little over two hundred children 
in our schools who were born in Germany, which is a fair index 
of the fewness of Germans who have come to us in recent years. 
Between 1900 and 1910 the number of born Germans in the city 
was reduced by about two thousand, so that today we have only 
about fourteen thousand. Aside from the Italians they form the 
largest foreign element in the city. At the beginning of this cen- 
tury, out of nearly fifty thousand workmen at work in about a hun- 
dred and thirty selected Rochester industries it was found that over 
fifteen thousand of them were of German birth. Eighty-six per 
cent of the workers in our breweries are Germans, fifty per cent 
of the tailors, fifty per cent of the bakers, thirty-three per cent of 
the printers, thirty per cent of the machinists and twenty per cent 
of the maids in our homes come from this race. Our policeman 
and firemen are all German where they are not Irish. While sixty 
per cent of our women musicians are natives, over fifty per cent 
of our male musicians are German. Our delightful symphony con- 
certs form no small contribution of the Germans to our city. 

As a people they are usually religious and thoughtful in their 
religion. Both extremes can be found with them : the dogmatism 
of old faiths and the free-thinking of new idealisms. They are as 
independent in their politics as they are in their religion. From 
the time when Benjamin Franklin despaired of them politically, 

16 



until today, they cannot be relied upon to be very partisan, unless 
we think with Franklin that "measures of great temper" will make 
a difference. Be this as it may, Andrew D. White says without 
hesitancy that "in the improvement of political methods our coun- 
try must acknowledge a debt to our fellow citizens of German 
descent." The German character is steady and industrious. He is 
not given to display, but he sets a high value on physical comforts. 
Unlike some immigrants, he will not save money by living below 
the social standards. With the conscience of a Scotchman, the emo- 
tion of an Irishman and the stick-to-it-tive-ness of an Englishman, 
they have always contributed and will continue to contribute some 
of the best features to our city and to all American life. 

Many of the Germans of our city have been adherents of the 
Jewish religion and though the official Census of the country does 
not include the Jews as a race, we cannot do justice to the racial 
features of Rochester without some word concerning the men and 
women of that race who have made this city their home. They live 
mostly in the 5th and 8th wards. The reason for their presence 
with us is the old reason of persecution first of all. Economic dis- 
turbance in the agricultural conditions of the lands that they have 
left and the partial industrializing of the towns have also been fac- 
tors. Our Russian citizens are nearly all Jewish, while Germany, 
Poland and Austria and other countries send us large contingents. 
In round numbers we probably have about ten thousand Jews in 
the city. 

In the Directory for Rochester in 1844 we find mention of five 
Jews in the city, who like the pioneers of this race in other places 
were peddlers. Mire Greentree, called the father of the clothing 
industry of Rochester, came here in that year. Six years later the 
five had increased to seventy. Throughout their history with us 
they seemed to have been among the most progressive of the coun- 
try. The Temple Berith Kodesh was the first congregation in 
America, perhaps in the world, to hold its services in English ; this 
was as early as 1884. The Chamber of Commerce of Rochester was 
the first Chamber to elect a Jew as its President. Politically they 
have never been very important in this city, though they have 
usually succeeded in controlling the seventh ward. More perhaps 
than any other race that we have with us they prize education and 
seek it through tremendous difficulties. In this they are like their 
people all over the world, for no people of the earth have in their 
ranks so many scholars, minds of genius and power. He suffers 
from a more varied sort of prejudice than the Italian but as his 
fellows in other religions come to know the wonderful history of 
his people, — a history far more remarkable during the last two 
thousand years than in Bible days, — he is welcomed and honored 
and made to feel how necessary he is with his energy and social 
idealism to the best interests of the land. 

Next in numerical strength, we have with us the brothers and 
sisters of Chopin and Kosciusko — the children of Poland. Mostly 
dwelling near the northern line of the city, with the far end of Hud- 
son avenue as their main avenue of approach to the down-town sec- 
tions, the members of this race are only just beginning to make 
their presence felt in our midst, though they have been with us for 
more than twenty years. According to the last census, we only had 

17 



56 born Poles in the city, though ten years earlier they numbered 
1,051. As all students of the race know, they have carried for many 
decades the tragedy of a lost land, and it is one of the pities that 
America should emphasize in any way their loss. We count the 
Irish a nation equally with the English, but we do not count the 
Poles equally with the Germans or the Russians ; at least there is a 
carelessness creeps in somewhere in their registration. A local 
survey made in 1911 counted about eight thousand Poles in Roch- 
ester, most of whom doubtless were put down in the census papers 
as Austrians, Germans or Russians. They work on our roads and 
in our factories like other immigrants and judging from the Roch- 
ester men and women of this race that we know and from the sight 
of the streets and houses where they live, they form one of the most 
desirable of the new comers that we have. In cities like Buffalo 
where they have long been residential, they have made a valuable 
place for themselves in the community and their members hold 
places in all the professions and positions of esteem in the city. 
This is undoubtedly what Rochester can expect from the few thou- 
sand who have come to us to help us realize in America a land of 
freedom and light. 

Last, but far from least, yea, last because so very important, 
the Irish contribution to our common life must receive some atten- 
tion from us. If space permitted we might tell something of all 
the races that have come to live with us in Rochester, especially the 
English and the Scotch, who are as numerically strong as the Irish, 
but in all our communities, the Irish influence is apt to be more 
distinctive and thus more easily traced. In every American com- 
munity, they have been important from the beginning, the first two 
coming over in the Mayflower. 

According to the last census we had in the city 5,230 persons 
who were born in Ireland, and 9,353 whose parents were born there. 
Like the Germans, they were among the first to come to Rochester 
and many of the pioneer names in our history begin with an "O" 
or a "Mc" and end with a "y." Patrick Barry shares with George 
Elwanger the fame of the great nursery and O'Reilley was our first 
journalist and historian. James C. Cochrane is said to have been 
our finest lawyer and Patrick Cox and John Kelly were among the 
fathers of the shoe industry of the city. Conway built Main street 
bridge under thrilling circumstances and Patrick O'Rourke, so 
famous in the Civil War was born on Front street when that street 
was referred to with more unconsciousness than it is today. 

The large immigration of the Irish to Rochester began about 
the same time as that from Germany and for much the same rea- 
sons. The failure of the rebellion and the loss of the crops in 1848 
brought many to our town. Some of our finest citizens came for 
the first of these reasons both from Germany and Ireland ; America 
has always owed much to the men who have had the thrill of revo- 
lutionary blood in their veins. It has not been possible to collect 
very much data of the Irish in this city, for unlike the Germans, 
the Jews and the Italians they have not made any decided attempt 
to preserve their records. They seem to be content to leave their 
footprints on the sands of time, counting all other record super- 
fluous. In proportion to their numbers more Irishmen vote at our 
elections than any other race ; they believe in the ballot. For this 

18 



they are often blamed but if only those who find fault with the 
political activity of the Irish were as active in the politics of their 
city and country, most of the evils they complain of would disap- 
pear. 

In the matter of religion, the large majority are Catholic. The 
Catholic churches of our city were nearly all built by them. The 
old Frankfort District and Dublin District on the north were almost 
wholly Irish sixty years ago. They are still found in large num- 
bers in the first and second wards. The northeast and southwestern 
sections of the city were invaded by Orangemen who came by way 
of Canada from Cork and its vicinity in the famine times. Their 
descendents may still be found in the 11th and in what used to be 
called the 8th, now the 7th and 18th wards. The town of Greece 
was almost wholly Irish — who does not remember Paddy Hill in 
that township? — and many have come across the city line to live 
with us. 

It ought to be made part of the annals of the Irish popula- 
tion of Rochester, that after the war was over, the war spirit which 
had found expression for America soon found expression in another 
direction. The Fenian organization of this city was made up largely 
of the old soldiers of the Civil War. One squad from Rochester 
did go to Canada and one Cleary even went to Ireland and found 
trouble. Later the city was a hot center of the Land League and 
Parnell himself was here in 1879. A Rochester man was the treas- 
urer of the national organization. 

Just how small has been the Irish immigration to this city in 
recent years can be judged from the fact that less than twenty chil- 
dren in our public and parochial schools were born in Ireland. 

As was suggested at the outset, all manner of topics and prob- 
lems can come from the application of some of the data supplied 
in this introduction, all manner of solutions will suggest themselves 
to those who have troubled to read it, but we refrain from devot- 
ing space to these things because we believe most of all in the essen- 
tial qualities of the races which we have considered together. They 
have not come to us for our charity nor our settlements, they have 
come seeking our co-operation in the working out of their ideals, 
it remains for us to welcome them with wholeheartedness to co-op- 
erate with us in the working out of our ideals, that together a com- 
mon vision may be realized. Of course, there are some in Roches- 
ter as in other cities, who think that immigration should be re- 
stricted ; there are some here as in other cities who believe every 
sensational news item of the foreigner's passions as typical of the 
race, forgetful of the large mass of solidly worthwhile men and 
women who come to our shores ; some here as elsewhere, to whom 
every foreigner killed or injured on a canal job or in a street exca- 
vation, is only one "Wop," "Dago" or "Giny" the less ; but there are 
others in Rochester who when they see one of our Greek boot-blacks, 
think of him as a young fellow from Socrates' land, "fresh from 
the master Praxilites' hand ;" perhaps descended from one of those 
who have become deathless in story and song ; there are others who 
when they see the Pole working in the shoe factory, think at once 
of Chopin, and recall how Dvorak made the heavy faces bloom with 
his wild Czeck melody ; there are others who when the Italian fruit 
man comes to the door, or dies of tuberculosis in one of our tene- 

19 



LiDnnn 



wr uuiNuncoo 




ments, go back in their minds four centuries , 013 821 549 # 

from the wave began to rise," who remember wucu mc,y occ wic 
wide lustrous eyes that when Italy dreams Caesar and Dante and 
Angelo come with us to dwell ; yes, there are others, who when the 
junkman comes to the back door, never think of him as a "Sheeny," 
but see in him the sad, kindly eyes of the man of Nazareth. Our 
end can best be an aspiration with Robert Haven Schauffler : 



"New comers all ifeem me Eastern seas, 
Help us to incarnate dreams like these, 
Forget and forgive that we did you wrong, 
Help us to father a nation strong 
In the comradeship of an equal birth, 
In the wealth of the richest bloods of earth." 



INDEX 



Age of Householders - 
Age of Population - 
Aliens - 

Buffalo - - - 
Congested Wards 
Crime of Immigrants 
Density - 
"Desirability" - 
Divorced persons 
Educated Immigrants 
Fenians - 

Foreign Parentage - 
Fourth Ward 
Germans - 
Illiteracy - 
Indian population - 
Inhabitable areas 
Immigrant agents - 
Irish - 
Italians - 
Jews - 

Money brought in - 
Mortgaged homes 
Natives - 



- 10 
10-11 

- 11 
6-7 

- 8 
4 

7-9 
12 

- 10 
14 

- 19 
10-1 

- 8 
15-17 

- 4 
4 

- 8 
13 

18-19 
12-15 

- 17 
12 

- 9 
10-11 



Native parentage - - - 10 

Naturalized citizens - - - 11 

New England colonists - - 5 

New York city - 6-7 

Number of Dwellings - - 9 

O'Reilly's History - 4 

One-family houses - - - 10 

Over-crowding - - - - 8 

Ownership of homes - - 9 
Percentage who stay in U. S. - 3 

Percentage of Foreign-born - 3 

Percentage of natives - 4 
Poles ------ 17-18 

Rates of Increase - - - 5-7 

Rented Homes - - - - 9 

Rochesterville - - - - 5 

Savings in banks - - - 14 

School children - - - - 12 

Sex Characteristics - - - 10 

Syracuse ----- 6-7 

Two-family houses - - - 9 



Voters 

Watchorn's letter 
Widowed, The 



11, 



18 
3 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 821 549 ft 



Hollinger Corp. 
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